Perseus and Pegasus: Mythical Metaphors: Airbursts c1383 -c1327 BC © Nicholas Costa 2025

According to the latest research Halley’s comet was trapped in a 1:6 resonance with the planet Jupiter (meaning it completed one orbit for every six of Jupiter’s) between 1404 BC and 690 BC. These resonant periods affected the ejection of meteoroids, leading to greatly enhanced meteor activity like the Orionid meteor showers. (Resonant behavior of comet Halley and the Orionid stream, A. Sekhar, D. J. Asher 2013).

This would help explain the origin of many of the ancient mythological narratives.

This activity is detectable for instance in the increased reverence shown to the goddess Sekhmet during Amenhotep III’s Egypt. He ruled Egypt c1386- c1349 BC

It appears in Greek mythology as the head of Medusa carried by Perseus, or as the horse Pegasus being ridden by Bellerophon.

Perseus and Medusa

Perseus’ name is derived from the Ancient Greek word pertho which means to sack, ravage, destroy (a city); to slay (a person). The Gorgon names derives from the Ancient Greek word gorgos, meaning grim, fierce, or dreadful. Whilst the name Medusa derives from medo, rule over.

Jerome in his Chronicon has the following entries:

“1383 BC: Those things which are said of Perseus… [§ 1383]

“1345 BC Perseus fought against the Persians, holding the decapitated head of the licentious Gorgon, which on account of her extraordinary beauty so rendered the minds of her spectators impotent, that she was thought to turn them into stones;” [ § B1345 ]

Notably dendrochronological records reveal the following for the 14^th millenium BC: 1386, 1385, 1373 (ring-width minima signals), and for 1359(frost signals). (Bristlecone pine tree rings and volcanic eruptions over the last 5000 yr Matthew W. Salzer, Malcolm K. Hughes, 2005.) Whilst the GISP 2 ice core reveals an anomaly for the year 1327 BC. (Aspects of Ancient Near Eastern Chronology c. 1600 – 700 BC Pierce James Furlong, 2007)

A tablet from Tel Amarna in Egypt contains a report of the King of Tyre sent to Amenhotep-IV (1353-36) the pharaoh who became Akenhaten. The King of Tyre reported that half of the town of Ugarit had been destroyed by fire. According to other contemporary tablets (Dussaud, 1896; Virolleaud, 1935), the other half of the town was allegedly destroyed by a sea wave. There has been protracted debate between academics over when to allocate the record of the tsunami at Ugarit Estimates date it to either 1380 BC (F Soloviev et al. 2000) or to 1365± 5 BC (Ambraseys et al. 2002). (A critical evaluation of tsunami records reported for the Levant Coast from the second millennium BC to the present Amos Salamon et al, 201.1)

Mythological date: 1383 BC: In the primary myth of Perseus he rescued Andromeda from a sea monster. He killed the monster by either turning it into stone with Medusa’s head or by using his sword. Both are evidently metaphors for an bolide or airburst. The myth is set in ‘Ethiopia’ but its actual location was in Jaffa where Andromeda’s rock is located.

Mythological date 1345 BC: A second myth states that Perseus was founder of Tarsus (Solinus, Polyhistor, 38.3) The Suda states: “he founded a city, which he called Tarsus, previously named Andrasus. And having received an oracle that after victory, wherever he should dismount from his horse and lay down the sole of his foot, there he must found a city as a memorial of his victories — for this reason he called it Tarsus.” (Suda Lexicon 406). Likewise, John Malalas, (Chronography § 2.37 ) states that it was Perseus who founded Tarsus by using the Gorgon’s head. Evidently the myth implies an airburst. This may help explain the difference between the two dates cited in Eusebius for Perseus. The Suda certainly goes on to narrate his exploits in Persia.

Pegasus and Bellerophon

C1341 BC: Jerome dates Pegasus’ appearance to 1341 BC. Mythology knows Pegasus as the child of Medusa born when her head was cut off.

Pegasus is depicted as being ridden by Bellerophon:

“So Bellerophon mounted his winged steed Pegasus, offspring of Medusa and Poseidon, and soaring on high shot down the Chimera from the height.”(Apollodorus 2.3.2)

Hyginus, Fabulae § 57 states that after Bellerophon had killed the Chimera he fell off the horse and dislocated his hip on the Aleian plains, subsequent to this Poseidon sent a flood.

Were the two events, which occurred so closely in time confused (1345 and 1341) or because they were celestial the made use of the same metaphor of the Aleian plain?

The Aleian Plain in Lycia or Cilicia?

The Aleian Plain was a broad alluvial plain in the ancient region of Cilicia, in modern-day south-central Turkey. The city of Tarsus, St Paul’s native city, was located here. According to the mythological narrative Tarsus was founded by Perseus in 1345 BC. It might have been memories of these events that set St Paul off on his journey to sites which had a record of past airbursts.

The Aleian plain was also cited as being in Lycia, the region in which Bellerophon and Pegasus had their adventure in 1341 BC.

The name becomes all the more pertinent when one looks at its meaning. The name aleian comes from the Greek word alaomai – I wander. It is doubtles related to another Greek word planetes meaning wanderer. This term was used by ancient astronomers to describe celestial bodies that appeared to move independently against the background of the fixed stars, and was the origin of our word planet.

Chimaera

The scene of Bellerophon’s exploit was set in Lycia (Tzetzes, Ad Lycophron § 17). It was here that he killed the fire breathing Chimaera. Strabo located it on Mount Cragus now identified as Avdancik Tepe. However according to Ctesias of Cnidus (fl 5^th century BC) it occurred on Mount Chimaera. (Pliny, Historia Naturalis § 2.236). The area is now called Yanartas (flaming rock) was known as Mt Chimaera. Here methane and other gases, such as hydrogen, emerge from the rock and burn constantly. The two locations are approximately 142 km (88 mi) at opposite ends of Lycia. The myth indicates it was an airburst that triggered an eruption followed by a tidal wave

Bellerophon

Bellerophon’s name interestingly derives from the Greek words belos projectile and phontes slayer. In Stephanus of Byzantium’s Ethnica (§ Ch696.9) a genealogy is given for a figure named Chrysaor (of the golden sword), which makes it a doublet of Bellerophon, further underlying the celestial metaphor. The Lycians knew of a club-bearing horse riding god named Kakasbos.

Pegasus

Notably Pegasus was depicted as the brother of Chrysaor, both of whom were born from Medusa’s blood when their mother was decapitated by Perseus (Hesiod Theogony 281) Greco-Roman poets wrote about his ascent to heaven after his birth and his obeisance to Zeus, who instructed him to bring lightning and thunder from Olympus.A potential etymological link for the name is to the Greek word pegazo, meaning to spring forth- a suitable metaphor for the sudden appearance of a meteorite. An alternative proposal is that the etymology of the Pegasus’ name is Luwian and derived from pihassas, lightning, Pihassassi was the Luwian-Hittite name from southern Cilicia of a ‘weather’ god who was represented with thunder and lightning. The proponents of this etymology adduce Pegasus’ role, reported as early as Hesiod, as the bringer of thunderbolts to Zeus. (It was first suggested by H.T. Bossert, “Die phönikisch-hethitischen Bilinguen vom Karatepe”,1952). Itmar Singer states that name Pihassassi is derived from the root piha = luminosity, splendor; whilst pihassassi is an adjectival genitive meaning “that which is luminous” (2011, The Calm before the Storm). This in its turn has been interpreted as signifying lightning. However it cannot have been any old lightning given that Muwattall II (c1295–1282 or c1295–1272 BC) made him his personal deity and addressed prayers to him:

“….As for me, Muwatalli, your servant, my soul will rejoice inside me, and I will exalt the Storm-god of Lightning. The temples that I will erect for you and the rites I will perform for you, Storm-god of Lightning, my lord, you shall rejoice in them” (Singer 2011: 600).

Note the parallels to the erecting of multiple statues in Egypt to the goddess Sekhmet since the time of Amenophis III, and in particular the image of Seti (c1294 or 1290 BC to 1279 BC) and Sekhmet at Abydos. This relief shows the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet holding the ankh sign before the mouth of pharaoh Seti I. The sign is entwined in her menat necklace. The relief is located on the west wall of the Second Hypostyle Hall of the Seti. The Seti Temple at Abydos was begun by Seti I and completed by his son Ramses II in the 13th century BC. The Egyptians were the ultimate beneficiaries of the disaster of c1327 BC.

Muwatalli II was a king of the New Kingdom of the Hittite empire. It was he who notably moved the Hittite capital southwards to the as yet unlocated site of Tarhuntassa and fought Ramesses II at Kadesh. The move was doubtless prompted by the upheavals caused by the airburst in the west. In Muwatalli II’s seals, he is being embraced by the Storm God of Lightning (Pihassassa) rather than the traditional Storm God of Heaven (Teshub), signifying airbursts as opposed to a cometary manifestation.

Thus according to surviving Greek mythology there were four distinct airbursts witnessed in the region. The first ascribed to Perseus and the Gorgon’s head over Ugarit, the second over Cilicia and the third ascribed to Pegasus and Bellerophon over Lycia. Saltzer-Hughes’ dendrochronological records are indicative of a number of events during this period, dated as follows: 1386, 1385, 1373 (ring-width minima signals), and for 1359 (frost signals). (Bristlecone pine tree rings and volcanic eruptions over the last 5000 yr Matthew W. Salzer, Malcolm K. Hughes, 2005). Likewise the GISP 2 ice core reveals an anomaly for the year 1327 BC.

Pegasus and Cerne / Ephesus

From Lycophron (fl c3rd century BC) one can deduce a fourth reference this time alluding to the c1327 BC airburst. He wrote: “Dawn was just soaring over the steep crag of Phegion on swift wings of Pegasus, leaving his bed by Cerne” (Lycophron, Alexandra, 16)

Tzetzes (c1110-1180 AD) paraphrases it: “Day indeed already was flying over Phegion Mountain of the Ocean, being carried by the Pegasus horse, leaving your brother Tithonus around Kerne, which is an island of the Ocean” (Ad Lycophronem, 16)

He adds, given the mainland Greek perspective, that:

“Kerne is an Oceanic island, from where the sun seems to rise” (Ad Lycophronem, 18 )

This presence of Pegasus in reference to Cerne is highly significant. It is evidently another metaphor for the c1327 BC airburst. (Tithonus was depicted as the son of Laomedon According to Eusebius (§ B1389) Laomedon ruled for 40 years, 1389-1349 BC therefore placing Tithonus as the successor within temporial range of the airburst.

Next: What or who were the Cercopes?